Xingese Tea Cakes
by Ninjee
Summary: Written for Almei week, prompt: ulterior motives. Mei bakes some tea cakes just after the Promised Day and decides to take some to Al.


When Alphonse Elric woke up after sleeping for the first time in five years (even though it was more like unconsciousness than sleeping), he was on an unfamiliar couch. He tried to sit up, gingerly, and remembered too late that his muscles could barely move. Oh. _Ouch._

Not his best idea, he reflected.

He was wearing clothes that weren't his (although no clothes actually belonged to him, technically) and they didn't fit. But it felt so good to be wearing them, touching things, that he didn't even think of complaining.

It was brown pants and a button-down shirt, put on him askew, and so he assumed Edward had done it. They were Ed's clothes, after all, he could tell, because there were bits of grease on the right sleeve from the rubbing of automail against it.

Where was Ed, anyway?

There was someone knocking at the door. Maybe Ed went out to get something and now he was back. Winry would have wanted him to call, Al thought hazily, staring at the ceiling. Maybe that's where he was.

"Brother, is that you?" he called. "I think the door's open, but I can't get up."

The door pushed open, and a pale black-haired head looked in. "Mr. Alphonse? Are you alright?"

"M-Mei!" he stammered. He tried to hoist himself up onto his elbows, but his arms gave out. Nope, still not working. "What are you doing here?"

"We're going soon." she said quickly, her words running together, blushing. "I wanted to say goodbye. And give you something."

"Oh." he said, suddenly aware of how long and knotted and ratty his hair was as it fell into his eyes and he tried in vain to shake it away. "Can you, uh, help me get up?"

"Oh! Yes, of course." she said, closing the door behind her with a click. She was carrying a box, which she set on the table. Then she walked over, grasped his hands, and helped him sit up.

"Thanks." he said. "Sorry to keep asking you, but could you get me into the kitchen?"

"It's no trouble." she said, smiling at him a little. She helps him stand, wraps an arm carefully around his waist.

_"It's so warm."_ he remembered saying. Touch was so strange after not feeling it for so long. But he was sure shaking his father's hand wasn't quite this…electric.

She got him into a chair and then just looked at him for a moment, her head tilted to the side. "Your hair's so long." she said after a slightly awkward pause.

"I don't like it like this." he said, grinning a little. "I can barely see." The hair covered one of his eyes completely, and he vaguely remembered Ed promising to cut it before he drifted off last night.

"I could cut it for you, if you like." she offered shyly.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his eyes widening. "I mean…I'd love that, but…"

"We aren't leaving for a while yet. My half-brother will want to eat." she said. "Where are the scissors?"

He frowned. "I don't think there are any. Brother doesn't really cut his hair. Sometimes Winry trims it when we visit, but…" He looks around. "Can you get me that?" he asks her, pointing to something small and metal.

"A knife?" she said, and then laughed and shook her head before he could answer. "Oh, yes, of course. Alchemy."

He made small scissors out of the knife and she laughed again. Even that small thing – clapping his hands and pressing them to the knife – was a lot of effort, and he thought about the miles ahead of him, the way home, and winced internally.

"How would you like your hair to look?" she asked him, drawing him back to the present, picking up the scissors and looking at him expectantly.

He looked around, and saw the armor's old loincloth sitting across a chair. It doubled as a place to carry things, like pockets, which is why he'd kept it.

He reached for it and Mei helped him. He rummaged in the pockets for a minute before taking out The Picture – one of him and Ed and Mom back before she'd died.

"That's how." he said, pointing to the little Alphonse in the picture, grinning broadly. "Like that."

Mei's eyes softened. "Is that your mother?" she asks, taking the picture gently from his hand and studying it for a minute.

"Yes, that's her."

"She's beautiful."

"Yeah." he said, his throat tight. Crying is another thing that hasn't happened in a while. Even though he's glad it _can_ happen, in a strange sort of way, he's still upset that it _is_.

When he stopped blinking furiously and looked up again, she's studying his hair.

"I think that the best way to do this would be to just hack at it." she admitted, and he nodded resolutely.

"Do your worst." he told her, smiling. "It can't be as bad as the time Winry played hairdresser and made my hair stick up in the back for two months.

"I hadn't thought you'd be so vain." she said, and he can tell by the smile in her voice that she's teasing. Since when does he know her so well?

She snipped at his hair in silence for a little bit, and then he thought of something to say.

"What's in the box?"

"Those are, um, Xingese tea cakes. I made them for Lanfan and the Yao Prince, but I thought since you hadn't eaten anything in a while you might like one."

"That was kind of you." he said, smiling, and since she's standing to the side of him he could see the blush that overtook her cheeks.

"I, um…thank you, Mr. Alphonse." she said, ducking her head.

The rest of the time passed in companionable silence until his hair was no longer in his eyes. She showed him a mirror and the picture, saying that she hopes she got it right, and he felt all of a sudden like himself again.

She took a tea cake out of the box and put it on the table, and then she stood still, holding the box to her chest.

"Will I see you again soon?" he asked her, and he wasn't expecting her to blush again, but she did. He realized belatedly that it was immensely adorable.

Belatedly meaning he's a bit slow on the uptake, and oh god is he going to go through life as oblivious as his brother?

"I…" she said, and then shrugged. "If you want to write, you could always direct them to the Chang clan in Xing. I'll get them. The letters."

"I will. And maybe I could come to Xing someday, and learn about alkehestry?" he said hopefully, and she went red again and nodded.

"I'd like that, Mr. Alphonse." And then she seemed to make a decision and, face bright red, leaned over to give him a lightning-fast kiss on the cheek before dashing out the door.

He stared after her openmouthed, reaching up to place his hand on his cheek carefully.

And even when his arm started to ache, the muscles unwilling to hold themselves up, he didn't move them, determined to keep Mei's kiss from flying away.

The tea cake, when he remembered it, was delicious.

* * *

_"You look cheerful." Ling observed, watching lazily from the couch as Mei rushed into the room they were staying in, clutching a box._

_"I made these." she breathed, handing him the box and sinking onto a chair, hand over her mouth._

_"You look like you're gonna be sick." he said casually, opening the box. Ooh, tea cakes. He stuffed one in his mouth._

_"Sick?" she said distractedly, touching her lips again. "No, I'm not sick."_

* * *

_A/N: Written for AlMei week (and mostly for ClosetFMAFan who writes THE BEST AlMei stories). Prompt: Ulterior Motives (you know she didn't make those cakes for Ling, guys, come on)._

_Anyway, enjoy. I might continue this, I might not. Please R&R!_

_I don't own._

_xx Ninjee_


End file.
